The Origins & Species of Our Reclaimed Woods
We get the question, “What are the origins and types of wood species in
our wood furniture?” a lot! So we decided to share with you our answer.
The materials used in our handcrafted pieces reflect the custom nature
of our work—reclaimed wood. Let’s first
peek at the history of reclaimed wood.
Our reclaimed woods were originally used to construct barns, warehouses
and mills built in the 18th and 19th centuries, meaning
somewhere between 100 and 250 years ago.
This fact, however, reveals the wood itself is actually much older.
The wood sources for buildings in the 18th and 19th
centuries were taken from mature trees, or “old-growth” wood. This referred to trees that were between 100
and 200 years old.
The general practice was to use trees in close proximity to the
location of the build site to save time and money. The trees would be cut down and then dragged
by horses to where the building was going to be raised.
Altogether, this means your reclaimed wood furniture piece may actually
be constructed, depending upon the exact source, from woods that are anywhere
from 300 to 500 years old!
The 5 Main Species of Reclaimed Wood We Use From Old
Barns
We’ve come up with a list and brief descriptions of the 5 main wood
species of reclaimed wood we use.
Let’s take a look at each one…
Oak is regarded as heavy,
dense and very grainy. It’s also the
hardest of the 5 woods we use. We
can further categorize our oak as being one of 2 species: red oak and white
oak. Red oak has red undertones whereas white oak has brownish undertones.
Chestnut is considered to
fall into a ‘middle range’ when it comes to hardness—it’s not really considered
a hardwood or a softwood. Most of the
beams that come from old barns throughout our mid-Atlantic region were constructed
from mostly oak and chestnut. Reclaimed chestnut often has wormholes, a feature
that is very popular because it adds so much character to the wood.
The most special part about reclaimed chestnut is the fact that
chestnut furniture can only be made from reclaimed wood! Why you ask?
Because in the early 1900s all the chestnut trees died due to blight
caused by a pathogenic fungus, Cryphonectria
parasitica. It was thought that this
fungus originated from a single Asian chestnut tree, brought into New York City
in 1904. The fungus quickly spread and affected all the chestnut trees and in
this area. Within 10 years all of the area’s chestnut trees died, but due to
their resilient nature the trees remained standing long after they had died.
The dead trees became a perfect home
for a small boring beetle, and thus was
born the “wormy chestnut”. By 1920 all the chestnut trees were gone.
Douglas Fir is in the pine family of woods. It typically features knots like pine often does—although most of these knots aren’t as big as those commonly found in White or Yellow Pine. Douglas Fir is considered middle of the grade when it comes to hardness, meaning it’s not hardwood nor softwood. One distinguishing characteristic, however, is that it naturally displays red undertones. When a customer desires a more “refined” table we often recommend Douglas Fir. This ensures their piece will exhibit tons of character without lots of color variation.
Yellow Pine from our stock is actually pretty hard and heavy. Yellow pine is used frequently to make outdoor furniture. Yellow Pine naturally offers yellow undertones in appearance. This is often a great choice for lighter (meaning, more yellowish-looking) tables or other pieces of furniture. It’s hard for us to make yellow pine look dark. We actually don’t like doing it because we think it’s best to show off its natural, lighter color!
White Pine is a customer favorite! Many classic-looking farmhouse tables are
made with it. White Pine generally offers lots of natural variations in
color, including areas of black, often seen around its wood knots. White pine is definitely the softest wood we
use. When a customer asks for a very
hard wood for their table then we know they don’t want White Pine. We build lots of White Pine farm tables
though because many people love their particular character. White Pine often displays a good range of
color variations. (P.S. - Our own family’s
kitchen farm table is White Pine).
All-in-all, the antique reclaimed wood pines we use tend to be darker in
color than the pines grown and found in today’s world of mass-produced modern
furniture using “new wood’. Reclaimed pine wood is much harder
because it was grown apart from the pollution, pesticides and fertilizers found
in the environment today. Thus, antique
pine woods are generally far more durable.
White Pine Planking
Reclaimed Woods: Color Variations
Natural color- One of the
unique and beautiful characteristics of reclaimed wood is the variations in
color. Color variations seen in many of
the antique reclaimed woods used in our pieces may depend upon years of
weathering including what part of the barn or building the wood came out of
such as north or south side.
Another common color variation may come from where the original piece
of wood was used. One piece of wood, for
example, might reveal that other pieces of wood once overlaid it.
We love to enhance the natural variation found in these woods!
Staining- Some species of
wood ‘accept’ stains very well where as others are better left unstained,
letting the natural beauty show through.
We say this with the exception of Red Oak, most of the Oak and Chestnut
wood we use in our furniture has naturally medium to brown undertones. These
two species of wood also accept our stains very well due to their grainy
nature.
Don’t do this- Other woods
such as White Pine, Yellow Pine and Douglas Fir look better with their natural
variation enhanced rather than covering them up with darker stains. In our professional opinion, darkening these
woods with stains tend to give them a ‘muddy looking’ finish.
Truly one of a kind- The
bottom line is that each piece of wood coming from our shop has a unique
character all its own. While many of
the tables we construct are similar in model, none of them ever look exactly
the same. Every one of our customers receives
a piece they can treasure as being absolutely unique.
Reclaimed Woods: Costs
Reclaimed wood is more
expensive. It takes time for our
craftsmen to re-cut it, remove old nails, and then plane it smooth so it’s
ready for use in the custom-built furniture tailor-made for each customer.
This process isn’t something we’d have to do if using new wood—we even
go through far more saw blades than if we only had to cut new wood from modern
trees. We believe the end results,
however, are definitely worth it!
And we certainly hope you do as well.
